For four years (nearly) I’ve lived and worked in the very hot state of Arizona. My sewing space, all of my soaping supplies and everything else I do has been left out in my work space.

In a month (June) we’re moving to Washington! For a little while we’ll be moving into a smaller place and I’m unsure when (or where) I’ll be able to set up my workspace again. All of my product supplies and fabrics will be in storage. That makes me very sad to be without all my crafts but that will only motivate me move faster and get back to my website and product creation.

The website has been changed to reflect the move. All pages that had products and prices have been removed for now. I’ve left the gallery, testimonials and a few other things up so people can get to know me still and hopefully want some of the products once we open back up again.

Wish us luck in this new move! Its going to take us about a week to get there and then the fun of unpacking starts.

Just as I promised there would be a new give away coming up! This friday, the 15th of Feb I will be starting a give away. I’m giving away a gift certificate to get any item that catches your eye over at Flutterbygifts!

So come back on Friday and learn what needs to be done to enter the contest. It will run for a week. Can’t wait to see how many show up for this great give away!

First the good news, a finished skirt!!!

 I’m very happy with how it turned out and I hope my dear friend likes it. Its got eight different fabrics worked into a pattern that goes all the way around the back. It is completly lined with muslin. The two peices are quilted together so the skirt is warm and moves seamlessly together. The bottom hem or “spin” is nice and large at 100in!! Its got a very deep “hidden” pocket on the front and a drawstring waist band.

 Last month I started a journey to understand what was going on with my body. My mother has lupus and it is thought there might be a genetic link to the disease. I was very worried when I started to have unexplained pain and fatigue beyond belief. I went to my doctor reluctantly and nervously. She ran a barage of tests and bloodwork. She was nervous about cancer, lupus and fibromyalgia. The tests came back saying that I didn’t have cancer or lupus so that was a huge sigh of relief. However she wanted to send me to a rhumatologist (a doctor that specilizes in pain disorders of the joints mostly) As I waited and this process moved slowly forward my pain increased, spreading to my stomach, knees, ankles, toes, elbows and mostly hips and spine. I was very glad that I said something to my doctor as soon as I started to feel anything because when I spoke up all that hurt was my wrists on occation, my forearms and my under arm area.

I went in to see the rhumatologist and he was a very very nice man (*whew*) he did some testing by pushing on my body in different spots, asked lots of questions and then told me that he felt I had fibromyalgia. I was in shock. This was not something I wanted to hear! No one would. Its something that is very misunderstood, something that everyone who has it experiences differently and something that could span from a slight bother and annoyance, to complete disability. For me its made it difficult to work on soap or sewing as its mostly in my hands, fingers and forearms.

I also just finished massage therapy school and now can’t use it due to the location of my pain. Its really rather depressing just now, but I’m trying to move forward, learn to handle and deal with it and continue my buisness and do the things I love. I won’t let this hold me down. I just won’t.

I got my sewing machine back yesterday!!! Oh what bliss…oh what wonderful work! I have made a note that I will be getting my poor baby tuned up more often. I had no idea what bad shape she was in until I got it back and felt the difference. No more shaking the whole table, no more noisy…no more slow, oh bliss I tell you!

 I’m not sure if new posts are showing up…someone alerted me by asking me to post, and when I responded that I had been updating here she had to clear her cookies and then saw all my new posts. I hope she was alone in that…though I’m not sure. So..if you can see this..yay!

Here’s the skirt I’m working on right now, now that I have my sewing machine back!!

Here’s the front panel, it still needs to be stitched down to the muslin. That will probably happen today or tomorrow

And then here’s a close up of the fabrics. I really like how this is coming out. She chose very well to get reds and browns in this time of year!!

I want to do another one of these skirts but in purple and just a little bit of green. I think that will be pretty. I’m so glad I can wear all my winter clothes now!! I finished making my winter clothes just as spring was coming up last year. I was so bummed so now I get to take out my mostly new clothes! Plus I’ve got new petticoats that I can wear under everything. oh I love layers!!

Technorati Tags: skirts, sewing machine, patchwork

I see that I’ve neglected my blog this week…I’m terribly sorry for that. This week has been a rough week and as such I’ve gotten about…not much done.  

I’ve not been feeling well and have been having some very odd symptoms for the last couple of weeks. Those that love me have urged me to see my doctor but I’m really not a doctor fan, and as my symptoms were odd and easily ignored I did just that. I ignored them. I couldn’t however ignore my loved ones, so on Monday I went in and saw my doctor. She was concerned. That’s not what I was looking to hear. So we did quite a large blood draw and we’ll see what comes back. I am hoping and praying for nothing. This is one time that I don’t think I’d mind for a doctor to scratch their head and shrug their shoulders and assume its nothing. Cancer is one of things mentioned and I’d much prefer nothing to cancer.  

A dear friend of mine chose to start hospice this week. She went to stand with her creator on Wed. While I was deeply saddened, and still am I’m comforted to know that her pain has ended and her sorrow is over. I will miss her so dearly. She was on dialysis for thirteen years. She was waiting for a kidney donation in all that time. She…never got it. Please. Please, if you haven’t already…please become an organ donor. If your not already..this didn’t need to happen to this wonderful wonderful woman. So please, save someone’s life.  

In happier news this week was a record week for the business! I was so so very grateful for the distraction and I am confident that it will keep up. I’m proud of what I do, I love what I do and I can’t wait to share with as many people as will allow me! The record was a record number of orders in any one week. It came at a nice flow, and I got everything out in record time as well! It was great. I thank you for your orders and I hope everyone enjoys.  

I did get the “Air” skirt started (part of the Earth, Air, Fire, Water series of skirts) I really like the color scheme I’ve chosen for the patchwork. I’ve got the idea and color scheme for the Fire skirt as well, but life needs to give a long enough break to sit down and work at my sewing machine.  

Speaking of my sewing…that’s another blessing for this week! My area (while very messy…) was all stuffed into a corner of the dining room and set up on a folding card table. Any time my sewing machine would go semi fast it would start rocking the entire table and so I would have to sew really slowly because otherwise it would vibrate to the point of not being able to see what I was doing. My neighbor moved away this week and decided to offer us his large (six person) dining room set, the table is very sturdy and my husband thought it would be best used as my sewing area! Oh my goodness….the amount of space I have now is glorious! Still a mess…cuz that’s just “how I roll” but that stems from having to have everything right at fingers length at all times. If I could just put ANYTHING away….hehe. Here’s a few pictures:  

Now I have actual cutting space that is separate from my sewing space (before in order to cut I had to put my sewing machine on the floor…and my serger was stored on the floor) Now my serger can fit on the table, all my cutting supplies, threads. Its all there!  

and I just had to share this. Anyone who isn’t lucky enough to have a cutting table knows that cutting on a normal height table is a back breaking thing. Normal tables are just too low. I knew I had to lift the table up but I had no idea what I could lift it with…I thought about it for about a week and I thought about the paper packs we have! We just happened to have four of them and its the perfect height. Now when I’m sewing and need to see close up for my satin stitching I don’t have to hunch over. Its been a life saver, for both cutting and sewing. Had to share. Cheap fix too!  

Last but not least I’ve signed up for a quilting class. I’m very excited about that, and while I know how to quilt there is always room for improvement and I think this will be a great help and boost for my skills. Not to mention I hope I can meet some other women my age. I’m painfully shy and as I work at home its hard to meet anyone. Here’s hoping!

Technorati Tags: kidney, dialysis, record, air skirt, quilting, health